5d & REVENUE Inverted on 10/- Dragon

[Revenuer]

I can find nothing previously written about this double invert error, although it has been recorded in my on line catalogue it is not in Craig & Ingles 1978 publication it is in their 1997 update edition.

A recent auction yielded the left copy with the right copy illustrated in an article on the TPS website.

Upon lining them up they appear to be from the same line/sheet.

It must have passed twice, with REVENUE first overprinted inverted, then 5d following on inverted. That said could there be a sheet with REVENUE upright and 5d inverted.

Could it be then that the 10/- Dragon remainders were without REVENUE overprint as no 1900 10/- Dragon have been recorded with REVENUE inverted.

Can anybody else show copies of this error? Maybe you have a 1900 10/- Dragon with REVENUE inverted? Dave

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[bill]

The 5d on 10/- St George and Dragon with Revenue and 5d inverted was also
recorded in an article on the George and Dragon series in The Revenue Journal
by Viney. That stamp is illustrated but only in black and white.

From my study of the surviving records in Hobart, it seems clear that all stocks
were overprinted Revenue in November 1900. The stamps are genuinely used.
The Dragon design is such that it was not always clear to the audit clerk whether
the Revenue was right way up or not. You have to look closely to see that the
overprint was not correctly applied. The printer may have assumed that the
Revenue overprint was placed upright and applied the 5d surcharge accordingly.
As I said above, it's easy to miss.

The same problem also occurred for the 1/- Platypus with inverted Revenue.
The impression of the stamps are not good so one could miss the error while
auditing the stamps as they came off the press.

An upright Revenue and inverted 5d is too obvious to miss, even for a jaded clerk.
I have not heard of a 10/- with inverted Revenue, except with the 5d surchage.
It is unlikely that any remainder sheets of 10/- missed the overprint.

I can well believe that the two illustrated examples come from the same sheet.
Probably only one sheet was ever produced.

[Revenuer]

Thanks Bill

Also thank you for pointing me to the Les Doble 18 November 2003 Leskie auction lot 431 where the right copy came from.

I remember bidding in the auction and totally missed the invert back then. Surprisingly no photo was used in the catalogue.

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